1637 - THE PEQUOT WAR

In
1633 the English Puritan settlements at Plimoth and Massachusetts Bay
Colonies had begun expanding into the rich Connecticut River Valley
to accommodate the steady stream of new emigrants from England. Other
than the hardship of the journey and the difficulty of building homes
in what the Puritans consider a wilderness, only one major obstacle threatened the security
of the expanding settlements: the Pequots.

Despite
early attempts to reconcile differences, continued confrontations precipitated
the first war between Native Americans and English settlers in northeastern
America and set the stage for the ultimate domination of the region
by Europeans. The War not only involved the Pequots and the English
Puritans, but several other Indians tribes, some of which, including
the Mohegans, aligned themselves with the English.

Based
on archaeological and linguistic evidence, the Pequot and Mohegan Tribes,
indian peoples of the Algonquian language group, probably have lived
in what is now southeastern Connecticut for several hundred years. Mohegan
oral tradition holds that the Mohegan-Pequots, originally the same tribe,
migrated into the region some time before contact with Europeans. Anthropological
evidence
shows that the two groups were very closely related. Just before the
outbreak of war with the English, the Mohegans under a sachem named
Uncas split from the Pequots and aligned themselves with the English.

At
the time of the Pequot War, Pequot strength was concentrated along the
Pequot (now Thames) and Mystic Rivers in what is now southeastern Connecticut.
Mystic, or Missituk, was the site of the major battle of the War. Under
the leadership of Captain John Mason from Connecticut
and Captain John
Underhill from Massachusetts Bay Colony, English Puritan troops,
with the help of Mohegan and
Narragansett allies, burned the village and killed the estimated 400-700
Pequots inside.

The
battle turned the tide against the Pequots and broke the tribe's resistance.
Many Pequots in other villages escaped and hid among other tribes, but
most of them were eventually killed or captured and given as slaves
to tribes friendly to the English. The English, supported by Uncas'
Mohegans, pursued the
remaining Pequot resistors until all were either killed or captured
and enslaved. After the War, the colonists enslaved survivors and outlawed
the name "Pequot."

The
story of the Pequot War is an American story, a key element in our colonial
history. As noted historian Alden T. Vaughan wrote in his book New England
Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675:

"The
effect of the Pequot War was profound. Overnight the balance of power
had shifted from the populous but unorganized natives to the English
colonies. Henceforth [until King Philip's War] there was no
combination of Indian tribes that could seriously threaten the English.
The destruction of the Pequots cleared away the only major obstacle
to Puritan expansion. And the thoroughness of that destruction made
a deep impression on the other tribes."

The
Pequot War was fought in 1637. It involved the Pequot Indians and the
settlers of the Pilgrim Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The
Pequot were a powerful tribe, their only serious rival the Narragansett

This
war was the culmination of numerous conflicts between the colonists
and the Indians. There were disputes over property, livestock damaging
Indian crops, hunting, the selling of alcohol to Indians, and dishonest
traders. Besides these, the Colonists believed that they had a God given
right to settle
this New World. They saw the Indian as savages who needed to be converted
to their way of God. Unfortunately, the colonists felt superior to all
Indians even those who became Christian. The Indian was in a difficult
situation. He constantly suffered at the hands of the colonists, yet
at the same time was growing more dependent on the Colonists trade goods.
The Indians were also disturbed at the encroachment of their lands by
the colonies.

Two
events weakened the Pequots prior to their war with the English. In
1631 the tribe was divided into pro-English and pro-Dutch factions.
This problem was not solved when the tribes leader, Wopigwooit, died
in that year. Two sub-sachems, Sassacus who was pro-Dutch and Uncas
who was pro-English,
fought to succeed as the grand sachem. The tribe picked Sassacus. Uncas
and his followers continued to quarrel with the pro-Dutch group. Eventually,
Uncas and his followers fled to form their own tribe, the Mohegan. The
Mohegan became hostile to the Pequots.

The
second event that weakened the Pequots was the smallpox epidemic which
they suffered in 1633-34. The separation of the Mohegan and the smallpox
cost the Pequots almost half of their people.

Pequot Battle Sites

The suffering of the Indians reached a breaking point on July 20, 1636.
On that date, the Pequot's killed a dishonest trader, John Oldham. Many
settlers demanded that the Pequot's be punished for this transgression.
Massachusetts raised a military force under the command of John Endicott.
This troop of 90 men landed on Block Island and killed 14 Indians before
they burned the village and crops.

Endicott
then sailed to Saybrook where they demanded tribute from the Pequot
village there. This was the first indication Connecticut had that the
Massachusetts Bay Colony was fighting the Pequots. The Pequots managed
to flee their village at the approach of the Massachusetts troops who
then burned
their village. Endicott then left, leaving the Connecticut troops at
Fort Saybrook to feel the wrath of the Pequots, who attacked anyone
trying to leave the fort.

That
winter Pequot sent war belts to many surrounding tribes Both the Narragansett
and the Mohegan refused to side with the Pequots. This was due to past
aggressions by the Pequots and to the influence of Roger Williams. While
the Narragansett, and many smaller tribes, remained netural, the Mohegan
sided with the English and fought the Pequots.

On
May 26, 1637, a military force under John Mason and John Underhill,
attacked the Pequot village located near New Haven, Conn. The village
was destroyed and over 500 Indians killed. The Pequot leader, Sassacus,
was captured on July 28. Many of Sassacus' tribesmen were captured during
the war.
The captives were sold in the West Indies as slaves. Sassacus was executed
by
the Mohawks, a tribe that fought on the side of the English. The few
Pequots who were able to escape the English, fled to surrounding Indian
tribes and were assimilated. The Pequots, once a powerful Indian nation,
was destroyed.

(Ed Note - This from a reader adds another reasonable discussion:

. . . . I can see now that your site has more than one reference to the killing of John Oldham. The one I referred to was on the "1637 The Pequot War" section. "The suffering of the Indians reached a breaking point on July 20, 1626. On that date, the Pequot's killed a dishonest trader, John Oldham."

That statement is simply wrong. First, it implies that the "suffering of the Indians" resulted in John Oldham's death because he was a "dishonest trader". The suffering to which the writer refers is a) a terrible plague that killed hundreds of Pequots and b) an intertribal conflict which split the Pequots. As terrible as the death to plague of hundreds of the tribe may have been, they would have had no way of knowing that it was most probably disease brought by contact with the settlers. The intertribal conflict had nothing to do with the settlers. Why take any of that out on John Oldham?

Second, the Pequots most likely were not the killers of John Oldham, but the Block Island Narragansets. Finally, John Oldham was one of the founders of Wethersfield and I have seen no evidence that he was a "dishonest trader".)

7 November 1634
Second Pequot embassy. Massachusetts Bay-Pequot treaty: Pequot negotiators
agreeto
hand over Stone's murderers to pay indemnity of £250 sterling
in wampum to cede Connecticut lands to trade with the English
to have disputes with Narragansetts mediated by the English.Pequot
council does not ratify the treaty,
objecting to the indemnity and arguing that Stone's murderers were all
either dead or beyond their reach.

16 June 1636
Jonathan Brewster, trader from Plymouth, conveys message from Uncas,
chief of the Mohegans, that the
Pequots plan a preemptive strike against the English.

July 1636
Conference at Fort Saybrook of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay officials
with representatives of
Western Niantics and Pequots. English colonists reassert demands of
1634 treaty. Sassious, Western Niantic sachem, pledges loyalty and submission
to English. John Oldham and crew killed by Narragansetts or a subject
tribe off Block Island. Narragansett sachems Canonchet and Miantonomo
condemn the murder and offer reparations. Miantonomo leads party to
Block Island to exact vengeance. Canonchet and Miantonomo promise not
to ally selves with Pequots in any dispute between English and Pequots.

25 August 1636
Captains John Endecott, John Underhill, and William Turner sent to Block
Island with 90 men to apprehend killers of Stone and Oldham and to seek
reparations or plunder. Most of the population of Block Island had escaped
and had left little to plunder.

23 April 1637
Attack on settlers working in field near Wethersfield, in retribution
for confiscation of land belonging to Sowheag, a sachem. Seven to nine
settlers are killed and two girls are taken captive.

10 May 1637
Mason leaves Hartford with 90 colonists and 60 Mohegans under Uncas
to attack Pequot fort Sassacus, on Pequot Harbor. Some members of the
Boston church refuse to join the expedition because John Wilson is the
chaplain.

15 May 1637
Mason and Uncas arrive at Saybrook with their troops. Uncas leads 40
warriors into battle against Pequots and Niantics, killing 4-7, taking
one prisoner, and leaving one Mohegan wounded. At Fort Saybrook, Mason's
men torture the prisoner. Underhill shoots him, ostensibly to end his
suffering.

16 May 1637
Underhill places his 19 men under Mason's command. 20 of Mason's men
are sent to reinforce Connecticut's other settlements.

18 May 1637
Mason and Underhill's forces embark.

20
May 1637
Mason and Underhill arrive in Narragansett territory.

22-24 May 1637
Mason, Underhill, and Lieutenant Richard Siely confer with Narragansetts.
Narragansetts under Miantonomo and Eastern Niantics under Ninigret ally
with the English.

A READER'S NOTE REGARDING HIS ANCESTORS:
"The correct name of the above lieutenant is Robert Seely, one of the 24
adventurers who founded Wethersfield, not Richard Siely. In fact,
Robert was wounded with an arrow to the head (see below). Luckily the
wound was not fatal. He went on to help found the New Haven Colony and
Huntington L.I. As a descendent, I take great pride in my forebearer's
exploits in the New World. In 1636 Robert was appointed by the General
Court of CT to take an inventory of the estate of Capt. John Oldhams,
who was murdered by the Indians at Block Island, where he had gone to
trade; Robert was killed in 1675 in Narragansett during the King Phillips War.

"Further information regarding Robert Seely: In May 1637, Robert was
appointed a Lieutenant and was second in command under Captain John
Mason in the expedition against the Pequot Indians on the Mystic and
Pequot (Thames) Rivers. He was one of the first to enter the fort in the
desperate "Fort Fight" on Friday, 26 May 1637. He was severely wounded.
Captain Mason says in his report, "Lieutenant Seeley was a valiant
soldier. I myself pulled the arrow out of his eyebrow." Robert wore the
scar on his brow the rest of his life. Pequot Hill, where the fight took
place, is about 8 miles northeast of New London, CT. In June 1637, he
was paid 20 shillings per week and 150 bushels of corn by the
inhabitants of Wethersfield.

In 1653 and 1654, Robert was appointed as Captain to the New Haven
forces under Major Sedgwick and Captain Leverett, English officers,
against the New Netherlands, and in Mar 1654, was put in charge of some
troops and took part in the seizure of the trading place at "Dutch
Point" in Hartford. In June 1654, he was appointed to act against the
Dutch. In Jan 1654, he petitioned the Court to pay for his services in
the Dutch campaign, but they refused, saying they did not "absolutely
require his attendance." Then to "encourage him in any service this
way," voted to give him 5 pounds. In Aug 1654, Robert was sent with 12
pounds of powder and 30 pounds of lead as a present to keep peace with
the Long Island Indians".

....Roy Seelye, Newington, CT, May 2001

25 May 1637
English and their allies approach Sassacus's Pequot Harbor fort. They
decide to attack fort at Mystic
instead. English and allies arrive at Mystic at night and make camp.

26
May 1637

Attack on Mystic

English fire a volley at dawn, then storm the fort. Mason enters at
northeast, and Underhill enters at
southwest. Pequots fight fiercely. Mason abandons plan to seek booty
and sets fire to 80 huts housing approximately 800 people (men, women,
and children). 600-700 Pequots die in an hour. 7 are taken captive,
and 7 escape. Two Englishmen are killed, with 20-40 wounded. English
march toward their ships, burning Pequot dwellings along the way.

Late May or early June, 1637
Mason and Underhill's troops unite with Massachusetts troops led by
Captain Patrick and Israel Stoughton. Group of Pequots discovered near
Connecticut River is surrounded by Narragansetts who pretend to offer
protection, enabling the English troops to capture them. Survivors flee,
some to Manhattan Island.

July 1637
Stoughton and Mason pursue fugitive Pequots.

13 July 1637
English forces surround Mystic survivors in swamp near New Haven. English
offer safe conduct to old
men, women achildren and to non-Pequot residents of the swamp. 200 people
accept this offer. 80
warriors refuse it and start shooting arrows at English. English soldiers
close in on them.

Summer 1637
Sassacus and other Pequots seek refuge with neighboring tribes but tribes
are intimidated by the English (and in some cases were already unfriendly
with the Pequots). Sassacus is refused sanctuary. English receive severed
heads of Pequots as tribute from other tribes, including head of Sassacus
sent by Mohawks.

21 September 1638
Treaty of Hartford: Survivors of swamp siege divided as slaves among
Indian allies: 80 to Uncas and
Mohegans, 80 to Miantonomo and Narragansetts, 20 to Ninigret and Niantics
No Pequot may inhabit former Pequot territory Name Pequot to be expunged;
Pequot slaves must take name of tribes to which they are enslaved.

Fall 1638
Group of Pequots settle at Pawcatuck in violation of treaty. Mason sent
with 40 English soldiers and
120 Mohegans under Uncas to clean them out. Narragansetts attack Uncas
as he is plundering the wigwams, but refuse to fight the English.

Notes

1.Mason reports that they went with 120 men: "The Council of Massachusetts
being informed of their proceedings, sent to speak with Pequots, and
had some Treaties with them: But being unsatisfied therewith, sent forth
Captain John Endicot Commander in Chief, with Captain Underhill, Captain
Turner, and with them one hundred and twenty Men: who were firstly designed
on a Service against a People living on
Block Island, who were subject to the Narragansett Sachem; they having
taken a Bark of one Mr. John Oldham, Murdering him and all his Company:"

2.Axelrod raises questions about this warning: "Moreover, a victory
over the Pequots would render the other tribes in the region more pliable:
Western Niantics, who lived near the mouth of the Connecticut
River and were subject to the Pequots; the Eastern Niantics, whose territory
lay east of the Pequots, near the Pawcatuck River, and who were
allied with the Narragansetts. Traditional rivals of the Pequots, they
would be uneasily wooed to the English cause. A more solid and cordial
English-Indian alliance was quickly forged with the Mohegans, really
a Pequot splinter group whose leader, Uncas, desired to unseat Sassacus,
the feared and mighty sachem of the Pequots proper. Indeed, it is entirely
possible Uncas's warning to the colonists, apprising them of Pequot
war intentions, was a fabrication meant to provoke combat."

3.Historians suggest a variety of reasons for this change ofplans, ranging
from its relative proximity (Mason 26) to a deliberate choice to avoid
a battle and instead to have a massacre.

UNCAS

Although
born into the Pequot tribe, an American Indian sachem named Uncas
(1588?-1683) became leader of the Mohegan tribe. He rebelled against
Chief Sassacus (1560?-1637), his father-in-law, and with his followers
formed the separate Mohegan branch. Uncas aided the English colonists
in the Pequot War of 1637 and fought a series of wars with the Narragansett
Indians, whom he defeated in 1643. In 1661, however, he made war on
an ally of the English, Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag tribe, and
the English intervened and forced Uncas to relinquish his captives
and plunder. Upon the outbreak of King Philip's War in 1675, he was
required to turn over his sons as hostages to the English in assurance
of his neutrality. A character named Uncas was immortalized in literature
in The Last of the Mohicans (1826) by the American writer James Fenimore
Cooper.

PEQUOT WAR NARRATIVE

In the very morning of this colonial era of Connecticut, dark cloudsgathered
black and threatening, and for awhile a storm impended which seemed
ready to sweep the little settlements from the face of the earth in
a moment. The fiery Pequods had become jealous of the English because
the latter appeared to be on friendly terms with the Mohegans on the
west and the Narragansets on the east, the bitter enemies of this warlike
tribe.

Over the Pequods, a famous sachem and chief named Sassacus was ruler.
He was
cool, calculating, treacherous, haughty, fierce and malignant, and lie
was the terror of the neighboring tribes. He ruled over twenty-six sagamores
or inferior princes, and his domain extended from Narraganset Bay to
the Hudson River, and over Long Island. His bravery won the unbounded
admiration of his warriors, of whom almost two thousand were always
ready to follow him wheresoever he might lead. Seeing the power of the
few English in garrison at Saybrook, and dreading the strength and influence
of more who would
undoubtedly join them, he resolved to exterminate the intruders. By
every art
of persuasion and menace, he tried to induce the Mohegans and Narragansets
to become his allies. The united tribes could put four thousand men
on the war-path at one time, while among all the English in the Connecticut
Valley, there were not more than two hundred and fifty men capable of
bearing arms.
How easily might those fierce pagans have annihilated the pale-face
Christians!

The Pequods moved cautiously. At first thee were sullen. Then they kidnapped
children; and finally they murdered Englishmen found alone in the forests
or on the waters, and destroyed or made captive families on the borders
of the settlements. It was evident that they intended to exterminate
the white people in detail, and terror prevailed throughout the valley.
This was heightened by the capture of a Massachusetts trading vessel
by the allies of the Pequods on Block Island, killing the commander
and plundering the vessel.

The authorities at Boston determined to punish the Pequods and awe them
into quietude. For this purpose they sent a small military force, in
three vessels, into Long Island Sound. This force killed some Indians
on
Block Island, burnt their wigwams, broke their canoes in pieces, and
cut down their growing corn. Then they went over to the Pequod country
on the main, where they made demands which they could not enforce, burnt
some wigwams, destroyed crops, and killed a few people. The expedition,
weak in numbers and injudiciously
conducted, was looked upon with contempt by the savages, and intensified
their hatred of the white intruders. They sent ambassadors to the monarch
of the Narragansets urging him to join them at once in a war of extermination,
declaring, as a powerful plea, that the two races could not live together
in the same land, and that the Indians, who would soon be the weaker
party, would be scattered and destroyed like leaves in autumn.

At this critical juncture, a deliverer appeared in the person of Roger
Williams, a Puritan minister, who had been driven out of Massachusetts
by persecution and had taken refuge in the land of the Narragansets,
who soon learned to love and respect him. He heard of the proposed alliance
and perceived the danger. Unmindful of the cruel wrongs lie had suffered
at the hands of his Puritan brethren, he hastened in an open boat on
a stormy day, across Narraganset Bay, to the dwelling of Miantonomoh
near the site of
Newport, on Rhode Island. He was the acting chief sachem of the Narragansets
(for his uncle, Canonicus, the chief, was very old), and was revered
by them all. There Williams found fierce ambassadors from Sassacus,
urging their suit, and at the peril of his life he opposed them with
arguments. "Three
days and nights," Williams wrote to Major Mason, "my business
forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, whose
hands and arms, methought, reeked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered
and massacred by them on Connecticut River, and from whom I could not
but nightly took for their bloody knives at my own throat, also."
Williams prevailed. He not only prevented the alliance, but induced
Narraganset chiefs to go to Boston, where they concluded a treaty of
peace and alliance with the colonists. So the Pequods were not only
compelled to carry on their proposed war
alone, but to fight the Narragansets.

This failure did not dishearten the Pequods. They kept the settlements
on the Connecticut in a state of constant fear, all the autumn and winter.
They plundered and murdered whenever opportunities offered. Barns were
fired and cattle were killed by them and the murders were sometimes
accompanied by the most horrid atrocities. Finally, a band of a hundred
Pequods attacked Wethersfield, killed seven men, a woman and a child,
and carried away two girls. They had now slain more than thirty of the
English, and the settlers
were compelled to choose between flight and destruction, or war and
possible salvation. They resolved to fight, having promise of aid from
the eastern colonies.

At this time there were in the colonies two brave soldiers who had served
in the Netherlands. These were Captains John Mason and John Underhill.
The former had taken an active part in military and civil affairs in
Massachusetts, and was now in Connecticut. The latter was an eccentric
character, and might have been mistaken at one time for a friar and
at another for a buffoon. He had been brought to Massachusetts by Governor
Winthrop to teach the young colonists military tactics, which it was
evident they would need. Under him the authorities of that colony and
Plymouth placed two hundred men to aid the Connecticut people in their
war.

It was not safe for the settlers in the valley to wait for their allies
on the sea-coast. They placed ninety men under Mason, who rendezvoused
at Hartford. With twenty of them, the captain hastened to reinforce
the garrison at Saybrook. There he found Underhill, who had just arrived
with an equal number of men. Mason hurried back, assembled his whole
force, and with these and seventy warriors of the Mohegans under Uncas,
he marched down to the fort. Uncas was of the royal blood of the Pequods,
and had been a petty chief under Sassacus, but was now in open rebellion
against his prince, and a fugitive. He gladly joined the English against
his enemy, and Captain Mason gladly accepted his services. As the war
was begun by the Connecticut people, Captain Mason was regarded and
obeyed as the commander-in-chief of the expedition.

It was determined in council to go into the Narraganset country and
march upon the rear of the Pequods, where they would least expect an
attack. In three pinnaces the expedition sailed eastward. As they passed
the Pequod country, those savages concluded that the English had abandoned
the Connecticut Valley in despair. It was a fatal mistake and the relaxation
which that belief caused ruined them. They had no spies out beyond the
Mystic River; and when the expedition landed near Narraganset Bay, Sassacus
was
rejoicing in a sense of absolute security from harm. So he continued
to rejoice while the white people, joined by two hundred Narragansets
and as many Niantics - more than five hundred warriors in all, pale
and dusky - were marching swiftly and stealthily toward the citadel
of his power.

That chief stronghold of Sassacus was on a hill a few miles northward
from both New London and Stonington, near the waters of the Mystic River.
It was a fort built of palisades, the trunks of trees set firmly in
the ground close together, and rising above it ten or twelve feet, with
sharpened points. Within this enclosure, which was of circular form,
were seventy wigwams covered with matting and thatch and at two points
were sallyports or gates of weaker construction, through which Mason
and Underhill were destined
to force an entrance. When the invaders reached the foot of the hill
on which this fort stood, quite undiscovered, and arranged their camp,
the sentinels could hear the sounds of noisy revelry among the savages
in the fortress, which ceased not before midnight. Then all was still,
and the invaders slumbered
soundly. At two hours before the dawn on a warm June morning, they were
aroused from sleep and arranged in marching order so as to break into
the fort at opposite points and take it by surprise. The Indian allies
had grown weak in heart, all but the followers of Uncas. They regarded
Sassacus as a sort of
god, and supposed he was in the fort. So they lagged behind, but formed
a cordon in the woods around the fortress to arrest any fugitives who
might escape.

In the bright moonlight the little army crept stealthily up the wooded
slope, and were on the point of rushing to the attack when the barking
of a dog aroused a sentinel and he gave the alarm to the sound sleepers
within. Before they were fairly awake, Mason and Underhill burst in
the sallyports. The terrified Pequods rushed out of the wigwams, but
were driven back by swords and musket-balls, when the tinder-like coverings
of the huts were set on fire. Within an hour about seven hundred men,
women and children
perished in the flames, and by the weapons of the English. The strong,
the beautiful,
and the innocent were doomed to a common fate with the blood-thirsty
and
cruel. The door of mercy was shut. Not a dusky human being among the
Pequods
was allowed to live. When all was over, the pious Captain Mason, who
had narrowly escaped death by the arrow of a young warrior, exultingly
exclaimed God is over us He laughs his enemies to scorn, making them
as a fiery oven. Thus does the Lord judge among the heathen, filling
the place with dead
bodies. And the equally if not more pious Dr. Mather afterward wrote:
"It was
supposed that no less than 500 or 600 Pequod souls were brought down
to hell that day." Happily a better Christian spirit now prevails

Sassacus was not in the doomed fort, but was at another near Groton,
on the Thames, to which point Mason had ordered his vessels to come.
As the English were making their wearisome way to the river, three hundred
warriors came from the presence of Sassacus to attack them. The savages
were soon
dispersed. Most of the victors then sailed for the Connecticut, making
the air vocal with sacred song. The remainder, with friendly Indians,
marched through the wilderness to Hartford to protect the settlements
in
that vicinity. There warriors and clergymen, Christians and pagans,
women and children, gathered in a happy reunion after great peril.

Sassacus sat sullenly and stately in his embowered dwelling, when the
remnant of his warriors, who escaped from the citadel, came to tell
him of the great disaster. They charged the whole of the misfortunes
of the day to his haughtiness and misconduct. Tearing their hair, stamping
violently, and with fierce gestures, they threatened to destroy him,
and doubtless they would have executed the menace had not the blast
of a trumpet startled them. From the head-waters of the Mystic came
almost two hundred armed settlers
from Massachusetts and Plymouth to seal the doom of the Pequods. The
question, Shall we fight or flee? was soon answered at the court of
Sassacus for there was little time for deliberation. After a strong
and hot debate, it was determined to flee. They set fire to their wigwams
and the fort, and with their women and children hurried across the Thames
and fled swiftly westward, with the intention of seeking refuge with
the Mohawks beyond the Hudson.

The English hotly pursued the Pequods, with despairing Sassacus at their
head. As the chase was kept up across the beautiful country bordering
on Long Island Sound, a track of desolation was left behind, for wigwams
and corn-fields
were destroyed, and helpless men, women and children were put to the
sword. At last the fugitives took refuge in Sasco Swamp, near Fairfield,
where they all surrendered to the English excepting the sachem and a
few followers, who escaped to the Mohawks. A blow had been struck which
gave peace to New England forty years. A nation had been destroyed in
day. But few of the once-powerful Pequods survived the national disaster.
The last
representative of the pure blood of that race was, probably, Eunice
Mauwee, who died at Kent, in Connecticut, about the year 1860, at the
age of one hundred years. The proud Sassacus, haughty and insolent in
his exile, fell by the hands of an assassin among the people who had
opened their arms to receive
him; and his scalp was sent to the English, whom he hated and despised.
He was the last of his royal line in power excepting Uncas, who now
returned to the land of his fathers and became a powerful sachem, renowned
in war and peace. He remained a firm friend of the English, and was
buried among the
graves of his kindred near the falls of the Yantic, in the City of Norwich,
where a granite monument, erected by the descendants of his white friends,
marks the place of his sepulchre.

DISCLAIMER: Whereas the editors believe the data reprinted herein from our internet and print sources are in all probability accurate, readers should depend on the bibliographical references for research. The mandate of the Charter of the General Society of Colonial Wars holds that it shall "collect and preserve" our colonial history and, insofar as we believe this includes the language and culture of the time, we eschew the currently popular "politically correct" words and phrases which we otherwise respect for their intent. In their stead we have substituted the words and language prevailing in their time. Example: For "Native American" we substitute Indian or savage.